Our girls?should have beaten arch-rivals Trinidad and Tobago and could feel disappointed with their performance on the netball court at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
But don’t expect the girls in ultramarine and gold to stay floored.
That’s the view of head coach Anna Shepherd, after the team returned home Tuesday afternoon from Glasgow having suffered defeats in all five of their Pool B matches.
As expected, Barbados lost to heavyweights Australia, England and South Africa, but would have been hoping to nose out Trinidad and?Tobago, who they defeated 60-59 at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India.
This time, it was the Trinis who won by one goal (38-37).
“I think the girls will regroup and bounce back. I don’t think Scotland was a setback. We are still in the top 12 teams in the world.
“I wanted to be in the top seven. That was the goal. It was very possible,” the head coach told NATIONSPORTS in an exclusive interview.
“Ireland is sitting at No. 7 after beating Scotland and Wales. We beat Ireland and did so convincingly. That was our spot. Realistically, we could have been there if we had maintained our focus.”
Shepherd believes the girls require more top-flight competition to deliver the goods against the best teams in the world.
“We need exposure and that has been showing in our games,” she said.
“We have some brilliant quarters but have not been able to maintain it. The consistency is not there and you can [get] it by playing at the top level on a regular basis.”
Shepherd, a former Barbados defender, admitted she was hurt by the loss to the Trinis.
“That’s the game we wanted to win and should have won. I figure if we had won that game, how we competed against South Africa, how we competed against Wales, we could have been up in there.”
The coach felt that the defence was the strength of the team but was concerned about the shooting and the ability to get the ball into the circle.
Shepherd said the girls lost focus against the Trinis, who will now climb above Barbados in the world rankings.
“I thought that we lost our focus and we didn’t perform. We have the stats that show we had ball possession. We had 46 turnovers to Trinidad’s 19; we had more attempts, so what can you say as a coach?
“We started the first quarter of the Trinidad game with a short combination because that had worked for us before in previous games. In our practices, that was showing to be the system that was carrying the most attempts into our circle.”
The team leave for Canada in a few days’ time for the American Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) qualifiers in Calgary and Shepherd has promised that they will try to put the disappointments of Glasgow behind them.
A few of the players, notably vice-captain Rhe-Ann Niles, returned home with injuries and Shepherd blamed the misfortune on having to train on the asphalt surfaces here.
“We left here without practising on what we would have been playing on. Therefore, that is why some of our players had so many injuries.
“We practise here on the asphalt and then you have to go and play on the wood floor. It is horrible to go through that.
“We need a floor. Indoor netball and outdoor netball are two completely different types of games.”
A limping Niles, who returned home on crutches, has been ruled out of the Calgary meet which will act as a qualifier for next year’s World Championships in Sydney, Australia.
